“JP Morgan’s Gokul Hariharan, who covers contract manufacturer Hon Hai Precision, writes that the assembler of the iPad appears to be cutting production of the iPad for Q4, citing multiple sources from the electronics supply chain,” Tiernan Ray reports for Barron’s. “Likewise, Brian Blair of Wedge Partners offered cautious comments this morning. ‘We understand Apple has recently cut production of the iPad by 15-20% for the December quarter… This would take our iPad unit estimate from 16 million units down to approximately 13 million units for December,’ writes Blair.”

Ray reports, “Piper Jaffray’s Gene Munster argues there are no cuts, and that a shift by Apple to other manufacturers could have something to do with the rumors… ‘Apple is currently transitioning to Brazilian iPad manufacturing, which may be impacting Asian manufacturing numbers.’”

“News reports in the last week or so said that Apple would shift some production to Brazil, as related by PC Magazine’s Leslie Horn two weeks back,” Ray reports. “And Susquehanna’s semiconductor analyst Chris Caso writes that it’s not true, and that the Apple supply chain remains ‘robust’ compared to order cuts elsewhere in tech… Caso’s colleague who formally covers Apple, Jeffrey Fidacaro, concurs with Caso’s assessment: no cut to orders.”

Read more in the full article here.

MacDailyNews Take: So much for today’s gift horse.

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